New Nappy Cake

toffeeapple

Nuninge wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I've only posted once on here before to ask for advice regarding wrapping nappy cakes when I made my first 3 tier.

I've made 5 nappy cakes in total now. I really rather enjoy it. I'm thinking of advertising my services at work but would like to know whether people thing what I have made is 'sellable' or not. Thank you.





The bow holding this together is only a temporary one till I get one of those lovely pull bows as think they finish the cakes so nicely.

The 3 tier one contains 2 bottles of baby bubble bath, 54 nappies, the ladybird blanket round the bottom layer, a very hungry caterpillar dress (the bottom of which is over the second level a bit like one of those old fashioned toilet roll covers and then the top part of the dress makes the top layer and then this is obviously topped with the very hungry caterpillar beanie. What would you think to charge for something like this? It contains 20 pounds worth of stuff.

Thank you,

Nuninge

Love the caterpillar cake, fantastic. You should go craft fairs with them, I'm sure you could get £39.95 for that. :T

liz_uk

Fantastic Cakes Nuninge!!

Love the Caterpillar Cake! Yes, definately around the £35/£39 mark x

moonpenny

I agee! Love the Hungry Caterpillar Cake and around the £35 - £40 mark.

I also prefer fabric ribbons (around the cake) to the Pull bow type.

moonpenny

Can I ask the Cake makers who have customers coming to your home - do you have a separate room or somewhere where people can look and choose one? or, do you just ask them in and go and get one from where you keep them?

From my experience, I have found some people buy more than 1 cake if they see other ones they like too. (I don't make to order but, make up and try and sell)

I know it's a daft question but it's a bit of a problem when you havn't got much space and you have "strangers" coming to the door, so you don't want to show them "all through the house" if you know what I mean.

Janey21

moonpenny wrote: »

Can I ask the Cake makers who have customers coming to your home - do you have a separate room or somewhere where people can look and choose one? or, do you just ask them in and go and get one from where you keep them?

From my experience, I have found some people buy more than 1 cake if they see other ones they like too. (I don't make to order but, make up and try and sell)

I know it's a daft question but it's a bit of a problem when you havn't got much space and you have "strangers" coming to the door, so you don't want to show them "all through the house" if you know what I mean.

Hi Moonpenny
Well I sell from my website but do occasionally have people collect from my home if they live locally, I make my cakes to order as I find that they take over the house if I let them lol..... just a little tip for you girls that do make them up if you cover them with the white peddle bin liners it keeps the cellophane looking clean and dust free, I usually use the charity bags that keep popping throught the door as well.
love the cakes on here girl's!!!

notgotenough£

Hi all, cant believe I have only just found this forum on here! I have been toying with the idea to start up making and selling nappy cakes for almost a year after making a couple for firends as new baby gifts. I finally decided to take the plunge last month and set about sourcing stock. I am booked on to a local makers market at the beginning of Oct and Dec. Ideally by then I wanted to have samples made up of the various designs I am wanting to offer, leaflets/flyers and a website set up, the idea being people will see them at the market, if they like them take a flyer away and make an order on line. Well thats the big idea..... My costs are spiralling out of control and with still having to order cardbaord boxes and things like bows and ribbon I am getting concerned. So far I have 4 different designs 3 tier bathtime cake, 3 tier girl/boy cake, 2 tier neutral cake and a 2 tier girl/boy cake. Was just wondering how many different designs you make? I think I am going to limit my range a bit more than I initially wanted to.

moonpenny

Janey21 wrote: »

Hi Moonpenny
Well I sell from my website but do occasionally have people collect from my home if they live locally, I make my cakes to order as I find that they take over the house if I let them lol..... just a little tip for you girls that do make them up if you cover them with the white peddle bin liners it keeps the cellophane looking clean and dust free, I usually use the charity bags that keep popping throught the door as well.
love the cakes on here girl's!!!

I also use white bin liners to cover. Ages ago, I found the pull bows I had fastened on were getting a bit dirty (inside the bow)

When I spotted it, I got a bit paranoid inspecting every one. I think it's to do with the static attracting dust, anyway, since I started covering them it's no longer a problem

I would rather make up "to order" but the way I sell them, I would be caught on the back foot as someone will phone up asking for a "pink" one etc to collect in an hours time.

Having them made up stops me stressing or losing orders.:rotfl:

Janey21

notgotenough£ wrote: »

Hi all, cant believe I have only just found this forum on here! I have been toying with the idea to start up making and selling nappy cakes for almost a year after making a couple for firends as new baby gifts. I finally decided to take the plunge last month and set about sourcing stock. I am booked on to a local makers market at the beginning of Oct and Dec. Ideally by then I wanted to have samples made up of the various designs I am wanting to offer, leaflets/flyers and a website set up, the idea being people will see them at the market, if they like them take a flyer away and make an order on line. Well thats the big idea..... My costs are spiralling out of control and with still having to order cardbaord boxes and things like bows and ribbon I am getting concerned. So far I have 4 different designs 3 tier bathtime cake, 3 tier girl/boy cake, 2 tier neutral cake and a 2 tier girl/boy cake. Was just wondering how many different designs you make? I think I am going to limit my range a bit more than I initially wanted to.

Well everyone is different and we all have great ideas that work for us individually but personally for me I decided early on that I would stick to single, 2 tier and 3 tier nappy cakes and do them all in just 3 colours pink, blue and neutral, when I first started I was using whatever I could get my hands on so every cake was different with different ingredients in each....what a nightmare and a big mistake, I just couldn't keep up with purchasing the different stock from loads of different places plus I found that I would go back to buy more items and the shops were not getting anymore, so I decided that each single tier would have the same ingredients and each 2 tier would also have the same and so on, this works much better for me and I then only have to re-order from my suppliers when my stock is getting low.
Of course when I am asked to do a bespoke nappy cake I then have to purchase what the customer has requested this can be anything from a steiff teddy bear to designer clothing but that doesn't matter because the customer is paying for it, I also offer the cakes for Twins as well.
I always make sure that I use soft toys that are safe from birth as this is a requirenent that trading standards insisted on when they came out to inspect my cakes.
My delivery boxes are white and I order just the one size 30 x 30 x 60 cms and when I send the single tier cake I just cut it down, as my best seller is the 3 tier nappy cake I use this size the most.
When I do craft/gift fairs and markets I find that people tend to take the business cards/flyers and then contact you later or order from the website when the time is right but at this time of year with the run up to xmas I sell loads of smaller gifts and mini pamper cakes.
I don't use florists ribbon and big bows on my cakes but prefer to use organza ribbon which I purchase wholesale from malaysia, the cello wrap I buy form a local wholesale warehouse.
Limiting your range for the time being is a great idea otherwise you could be left with a lot of stock that you will just not use, I have loads of stuff that I purchased in the beginning that I won't use.... destined for Ebay I think!! when I get round to it.
Well thats my take on it, don't know about the other ladies on here, but we are a friendly bunch and will help you if we can
Janey

notgotenough£

Thanks for reply Janey21. So far I have one 2 tier design for G/B/Neut and a 3 tier for each, and a 3 tier bathtime cake. I have decided I am not going do 1 tier designs. I am also going to have a go at making cupcakes that hopefully might sell at the makers markets I am doing.

Need to order boxes to be able to post out (hopefully). I am a bit concerned about sending them and them arriving in one piece.

I will try and get some pics on photobook and get some on here, if I can work out how to do it! Would like opinions before I turn up at the Makers Market and get laughed at !

Just wish I had a couple hundred quid lying around to get off the ground properly.

notgotenough£

Has this worked, trying to upload from photo bucket, but cant seem to get it to work???